


Close to Heaven

by Thistlerose



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Pre-Canon, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-10
Updated: 2013-04-10
Packaged: 2017-12-08 02:39:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/756025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thistlerose/pseuds/Thistlerose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>James and Lily share a (mostly) tranquil moment, very shortly before Harry's birth.  An older story, but I don't remember when I wrote it.  Probably 2004 or 2005.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close to Heaven

On the thirty-first of July, James woke to the scent of apple blossoms, honeysuckle, and thyme floating into the bedroom from the garden. The air was humid and heavy, the breeze sluggish, and James felt almost too lethargic to move. He managed to flop over onto his side, and prop his chin up on his fist so he could look at his wife. He had to squint without his glasses.

Lily still lay sleeping, her face turned toward the window, her lips puckered in a slight frown. A few strands of hair had escaped her braid, and clung to her cheek, neck, and shoulder. James stroked them away gently, needing to touch his wife’s skin, but loath to wake her. 

She was warm, and soft as cream, and she barely stirred when he leaned over and kissed the freckles on her bare shoulder. She only closed and opened her rosebud lips, and muttered something unintelligible. 

She’d been exhausted for months, James thought with a mix of pride, awe, and guilt. The healer assured them each time she visited that everything about Lily’s pregnancy was perfectly normal, but James found that where his wife was concerned, he was prone to worrying. Which he knew annoyed Lily, who fancied herself the most capable woman in the world. Still, James knew she would be very happy when the baby was born, and he could start waking up at all hours, and changing diapers. 

_Soon,_ he thought, his gaze roving from Lily’s face to her swollen belly. _Maybe today. Merlin._

He’d had nine months to get used to the notion that he was someone’s father. Still, he fully expected a meltdown the moment he saw his child for the first time. He’d warned his friends. They’d all promised to keep their heads in the event of a meltdown, but the only one in whom he had any faith was Remus. And Lily herself, James thought, who would no doubt be bantering with him and the midwife in the middle of her labor.

Grinning a little idiotically, James placed his palm on Lily’s belly, and felt a small kick. So, Harry-or-Rose (or “Hose”, as Sirius called the unborn baby when Lily wasn’t listening) was awake, too. James moved his hand, felt nothing, moved it again, and after a moment felt another tiny kick. 

James laughed softly. “Feisty, aren’t you? Good. My son’s not a wimp. Or daughter,” he added quickly.

As the baby kicked and punched, James pretended they were play-wrestling. He did not touch Lily again, but he followed the movements of the tiny fists and feet, and whispered, “No fair hiding in there. Come out and fight like a man. Or a woman. Oi!” The baby had kicked rather hard. Lily’s belly vibrated slightly.

“Yes,” Lily mumbled sleepily. “Come out and beat your daddy up, for once.” 

James was instantly attentive. He crawled back to the head of the bed, and began to smooth away the tendrils of hair that clung once more to Lily’s skin.

“It’s hot,” she said irritably. “And humid. I feel like a beached whale. Or…like a really huge melon with arms and legs.”

James kissed a corner of her mouth. 

“I’m ready to not be pregnant anymore,” she announced. But when she reached down to stroke her belly, her hand was gentle, and when she spoke again her voice was tender, and almost musical. “Come on out, love. I really was ready for you to come out two days ago.”

“That,” said James, settling back down beside her, “is because you wanted to beat Alice Longbottom.”

Lily turned her head and grinned at him. Her eyes were bright and pale as new leaves. “Damn straight,” she said.

James laid his hand over hers, and threaded their fingers together. “Next time.”

Lily’s eyes widened. “ _Next_ time? After nine months of this, you really think there’ll be a next time, Potter?”

“We’ll see, _Potter_ ,” he replied. “See how you feel when this one looks up at you adoringly and calls you mumsy—“

“See how you feel,” she interrupted, “when this one wakes _you_ up at three in the morning, won’t stop crying, spits up on your shoulder…”

“I’m up for that,” James said gamely. “And you’d better be.”

Lily’s face went white, and her lips parted around a gasp. She squeezed James’ fingers. “We’d both better be,” she said breathlessly. “Because this kid definitely is.”


End file.
